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This Labor Day weekend we took a grand journey.

A 9-hour road trip…to Rochester, NY!

We left the house irrationally early in the morning (like, 4 a.m. early) so on our way through Ohio we stopped for breakfast around 8 at an Amish bakery and Dutch restaurant in a tiny Amish country town. The breakfast buffet we indulged in included homemade sausage, egg and cheese casserole, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, eggs, oatmeal, and freshly baked donuts, muffins, danishes, pastries, and APPLE CRISP. We ate heaping bowls of hot apple crisp for breakfast in a sweet little restaurant surrounded by green rolling hills and cold morning fog…I cannot even fathom a more amazing start to a weekend! Apple crisp…for breakfast!!! We were like kids again! A few hours down the road, still in Ohio, we stopped to leave an unexpected note on the door of some dear family members saying that we “were in the area and just dropped by to say hi!” We hope they enjoyed the surprise since we live 5 hours away and are never “just in the area.” It was a last minute decision as we drove past the exit for their home near Cleveland…spontaneous fun is the best kind of fun!

We drove through Pennsylvania too, and decided that since we were driving right through Erie, PA, right along Lake Erie (which made for quite the pretty trip!) that we might as well surprise somebody else too – Ted’s cousin Michaela who’d just started college as a freshman at Mercyhurst that very week. So we texted her, “What are you doing in an hour?” “Uhhh, nothing. Who is this?” “Ted & Lara. Want to grab lunch? We’re passing through!” “…..passing through Erie?” “Yup! See you soon!” So we took her out for a quick surprise lunch at an Italian deli near campus. Another totally fun spontaneous adventure and the opportunity to see family? Sold! And on we continued…

While scanning the radio waves we randomly came across and enjoyed listening to (and, uh, loudly and obnoxiously singing along to) an epic, hour-long, commercial-free, non-stop montage of 5-second blips of hundreds of songs from the 50s-present day that were strung together into one musical masterpiece as we entered New York, passing signs for Niagara Falls and lots of wineries along the way.

We saw an adorable BEAVER (of all creatures) by an apartment complex a few miles from the Genesee River while on our Rochester explorations.

We strolled the boardwalk, pier, and sandy shores of Lake Ontario while we got familiar with Ontario Beach Park. It was a completely lovely afternoon, breezy and sunny with temperatures in the mid 70s. It was so refreshing and relaxing!

(Shakespeare rubber ducky!)

And we made a point to visit the National Museum of Play and the Manhattan Square Park & ice rink in downtown Rochester. The National Museum of Play was just awesome. We spent several hours playing with loads of fun, interactive toys, games, and devises (no doubt intended for children, but we’re big children, so we took advantage of the opportunity). They also had a whole video game arcade with video games spanning across several decades (which Ted loved), a 1,700 gallon coral reef aquarium and outdoor garden (which I loved), and a mammoth collection of toys from every age and decade…many of which we fondly remembered from our own childhoods. We also loved driving around the city and parking at old buildings – mainly huge, old churches and theatres – and sizing up all the great architecture. It was a wonderful Sunday!

And, of course, we tried a tasty local New York diner for breakfast AND ordered a pizza from a local pizza hotspot for dinner. There were about a million pizza parlors in Rochester, so we scoured the internet until we found the local “best of” pizza blog and picked ourselves a great little New York Pizza Parlor to try. I’m happy to report that it was, in fact, delicious.

Overall, it was an excellent weekend full of lots of adventure, explorations, spontaneity, and quality time together.

Did you do anything special for Labor Day weekend?